A Day in the Life for a Librarian in a Small Library in Yong-in, Korea

By the coral blue cylinder, a little red postbox can be seen  

Entry to the closest library in my neighborhood is simple. A cylindrical hall, there are just double glazed doors in the doorway. I ask the librarian sitting in our small library for an interview. She doesn’t want me to reveal her name, but she agrees to go through with a description of her work here. She goes to the nearest reading desk and gets ready to interview in a flash. Everyday, our librarian had been engaging with the books, the readers and, were it not for Coronavirus, projects like reading clubs. As she traces her everyday journey, overall she looks very happy to work there 4 hrs a day.    

 

At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, she begins by ventilating the library and goes on to clean out the library space, partly to comply with the measure for Coronavirus. She collects all the books put in the return box before her work time starts. With interlibrary loan service launched, many people ask for her service and she goes fine with that too. “we sort through new books and existing ones, the new ones go to the new book section and the rest go back to their original place among 6000 books already there." 

 

Then she confides. “When I began work here, there was no returning service. We were sort of encouraging the locals to use their library as a “sarangbang”. (referring to a Korean style guest meeting room) After six months of preparation, we finally got to start lending and returning service the year before. The interlibrary loan service was also missing until November last year.

   

‘Acquisitions’ simply means selection of books to buy for the individual library. ““Is it a best seller?” and other criteria function as the anthem for some users. Especially, for kids, I can see beforehand all the picture and text in a children’s picture book, to decide the purchase.” Finally she make decisions amid lagging budget. Our librarian’s careful book selections happen approximately thrice a year. “My work time lasts for 4 hours and I’m kept busy enough during that. “Once a book enters a library it has to stay there, so it’s an important job.” She says.

 

I ask. “But do you throw away books?”

 

“Well, if the book covers are white, I cover the book entirely with vinyl. Children tends to return books torn. My work is harder than it seems. It’s not so bad with the adult books. So there is acquisitions and there is repair work. I also recommend books, here and over there, to give them more exposure. I work closely with the Yong-in si library policy department as this library is a designated public place.”

Before the pandemic, she had two important continuing tasks to perform for friendly neighbours: One was providing space for children under 10-year-old. Teachers taught story telling. Reading clubs rented out our basement space to talk and enjoy themselves. ”You can always file a request and get permission.”

 

She observes in passing, "Japanese kids keep very quiet in the library, whereas Korean children make a lot of noise." 

And she now starts getting excited. “Without stopping to rest, I instructed some younger children five to nine years old in culture education and storytelling, about once or twice a week. That was warmly received. We also have had reading clubs and other clubs, organized by library users, in that basement space over there.” Just last year the library was to be freely used for a clinic for children with fairy-tale books, but the plan was erased afterwards. She says other cancelled free events include special holiday lectures and plays performed by talented people like children’s book authors, illustrators, and actors.          

 

Despite her revelation that there will be no official events in the library this year, due to Coronavirus, their very own children’s space still looks clean and lightened up.

 

 She calls up the past. “There’s a lot of users I remember from my work here. It’s due to the nature of being the sole librarian here. Usually the people who do lend and return job are not the librarian, they are either volunteers or contract workers. In other words the librarians are busy planning details and events for the library. Here things don’t go that way: I get to know many of the library users. 

 

“An elderly woman once came here and we made friends. We went to walk together and she plucked chives from her place. Suddenly she stopped coming. Then she re-appeared, around 2 years ago.” Says our librarian. “She looked much better. She told me that when she started walking all the way to our library here, her loved one faced death and she took it pretty hard, but she had found my presence very consoling. The lady wanted to thank me for being there for her. I was very much choked.”         

 

Towards the end of the interview, she doesn’t hesitate to tell me of her pleasure in feeling the nature of librarians’ job. “I wouldn’t be doing this without some kind of public spirit. I love it when people find a book they were looking for, or otherwise pick up a book on my recommendation. The elderly are overjoyed. After my instruction, they sing, ‘now I have a library card.’ These books are not here to stay, they are here to be read. That’s library books’ mission and anthem. I try to offer my service to people for them to contact with the books, and that’s why it’s worthwhile to me.”